Dr. Henry Gerber Reist was born 27 May, 1862, in Mount Joy,
PA. He was an outstanding student going on to earn a degree in
mechanical
engineering at Lehigh University in 1886. The same school awarded him
an
honorary doctoral degree in 1922. In 1908 he married Margaret Breed of
Lynn,
Massachusetts.
After several earlier position, Dr. Reist joined General Electric in
Schenectady in 1894 taking charge of design of alternating-current
machinery. He remained head of this department of GE until his
retirement in 1931. During his tenure he oversaw design of some of the
most important and prestigious power generating equipment in the world,
e.g. the Conowingo generators in Maryland, the Keokuk and Cedar Rapids
generators on the Mississippi River in Iowa, and the Niagara
water wheels in western New York.
Dr. Reist was an botanist, horticulturist, painter, photographer,
member of the Union College faculty, member and officer of
the Schenectady Park Board, a member of various
honorary and professional societies, holder of many
patents in electrical engineering (especially those related to
fabricated castings), a widely published author of
engineering studies and author of an important family
genealogy. He traveled widely including trips to Japan and
China.
He acquired the Sanctuary lands in the late 1920s or early 1930s, lands
which had been the farm of the Pearse family, one of the founding
families of Niskayuna. In 1934 he contracted with Paul Schaefer for the
restoration of the still standing Pearse homestead on St. David’s Lane.
In exchange for his services Paul received a three-acre portion in the
northeastern corner of the farm which became the site of his
home, now the Center for the Forest Preserve of the Association
for the Protection of the Adirondacks.
Dr. and Mrs. Reist lived in the Realty Plot in Schenectady until his
death on 5 July, 1942, at the age of 80. Mrs. Reist assigned this land,
109 acres in extent, to the Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club on 17
November, 1965, with expressed limitations:
“ . . . that the premises here in conveyed shall forever be held
as a bird sanctuary and nature preserve for
scientific, educational, and esthetic purposes, and shall
be maintained as far as practical in their natural state and
managed in accordance with sound conservation practices,
including the undertaking of scientific research projects, the
maintenance of fences and foot trails and provided
that a nature center and/or club
headquarters may be constructed thereon”.
People who have the good sense to set land aside for parks, preserves
and wild areas are among the wisest of the wise. Consider the number of
happy and therapeutic hours generated by Central Park in NYC and every
other
public and private park and sanctuary - and the hours keep piling up!
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